Life
Hara came from Hasami, in the domain of Ōmura in present Prefecture, and was one of the first class of the Arima seminario (minor seminary).Some dictionaries say he was of the clan, an unconfirmed tradition they report with "it is said".Martino is his baptismal name, and his real name is not known.
In 1582, during the Tenshō era (1573 to 1592), he sailed from Nagasaki as vice-envoy of the boys' embassy sent by the Christian lords, among them the Ōmura.Of the four he was the best at languages: he kept a diary in Latin and gave a speech at .That speech was a Latin oration of thanks to , given at Goa on the way home in 1587.It is the first recorded Latin composition by a Japanese author, delivered in 1587 and surviving in a printed edition of the same year.It has sometimes been attributed to a European tutor rather than to the Japanese teenager.McManus calls it the crowning achievement of his humanist career, delivered to his fellow Jesuit students at Goa.
He came back in 1590 to a Japan under the ban on Christianity, and the next year, 1591, he entered the Society of Jesus at Amakusa.His Latin made him useful at once. He taught at the seminario, preached well, and as the provincial's secretary in Nagasaki worked hard on the mission's printing.Using the Western type printing he had learned in Europe, he helped produce the (the press books).
He was ordained priest in 1608 (Keichō 13). In Nagasaki, Gonoi Takashi writes, he served as church notary, helping the bishop of Japan and assisting the provincial, and was regarded as a central figure among the Japanese Jesuits.
The ended his work in Japan. He was exiled to at the 1614 ban, and under the harsh persecution he lost any chance to return.One dictionary gives a later year (Disputed): it says he was exiled to Macao in Genna 2 (1616).He died there on October 23, 1629 (Kan'ei 6.9.7), aged 61 by Kōdansha's count.
What is uncertain
Where the sources disagree
- Disputed: birth year. Nipponica gives 1568 with no question mark; Yamakawa and Heibonsha give "1568?", Kōdansha 1569, and Ōbunsha none.
- Disputed: exile year. Most entries give 1614; the Britannica entry gives Genna 2 (1616).
- Solid: died October 23, 1629 (Kan'ei 6.9.7). Yamakawa gives October 23, 1629, and Kōdansha gives Kan'ei 6.9.7, which converts to the same day (NAOJ calendar).
- Tradition: kinship with Ōmura Sumitada. The sources give it only as "it is said".
- Unverified: father named Hara Nakatsukasa.
- Unverified: audience with at Jurakudai in 1591, and declining office. The opened sources say only that he met Hideyoshi after his return, with no place or date.
- Unverified: moved to the Jesuit college at Macao in 1601.
- Unverified: ordained together with Itō Mancio and Blessed . The year 1608 is confirmed; the companions are not.
- Unverified: translated a Japanese Imitatio Christi. The sources say only that he translated devotional books.
- Unverified: exile on the exact day of November 7, 1614.
- Unverified: helped and Blessed in Macao.
- Unverified: buried at Macao beside Valignano.